The end of the Clipperton legend (pp. 432–433)
Clipperton wants only a few private minutes to obtain the counsel of Incandenza Sr. himself […] Incandenza, while not quite strictly sober, is lucid, and has a very low melting-point of compassion for traumas connected with early success
Context
Clipperton — the fatherless boy whose Glock made every win unreal — comes to E.T.A. in the rain not for a match but for a father's counsel, and it's Incandenza Sr. he wants, over Schtitt's and Cantrell's objections. The theme's substitution pole, exact: a boy with no usable father seeks out another boy's father for the guidance his own can't give, and Himself, who knows all about "traumas connected with early success," lets him in. That the counsel-session ends with Clipperton blowing his brains out in front of both Incandenzas doesn't cancel the reach for a father — it's the reach that organizes the scene. The one adult male Clipperton trusts enough to die in front of is somebody else's dad.